Iran reacts to Syrian rebels' ultimatum that they will execute 48 hostages if Iran, Assad don't comply with their demands.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Saturday that Syrian rebels are responsible for the safety of 48 Iranians kidnapped in August, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.

The Syrian rebels said in a video posted on YouTube that they would start to execute the Iranians, whom it says are members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) if Iran and Syria do not stop striking Syrian citizens.

The video shows a rebel officer dressed in army fatigues standing in front of a group of hostages. The officer said that the execution threats came after the failure of negotiations with the Syrian authorities to exchange the Iranians for Syrian rebel prisoners.

According to ILNA, Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran "condemned the continuing lack of freedom of Iranian pilgrims in Syria."

"The responsibility for their lives lies with their kidnappers and their supporters," the foreign ministry spokesman added.

Mehmanparast said that the "use of defenseless pilgrims as human shields goes against the principles of human rights."

Iranian officials have claimed that the 48 hostages are Shiite pilgrims and an Afghani interpreter who visited Syria for religious reasons. According to Iran, they were kidnapped just outside Damascus as they visited the shrine of Hazrat Zainab, the daughter of Imam Ali.

However, their Syrian rebel captors say the 48 men are IRGC members who came to Syria to help president Bashar Assad's forces quash the rebellion against his regime.

Though Iran denies that the hostages were in Syria for military reasons, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has previously said that one of those kidnapped was a retired IRGC member.

In May, Iran admitted for the first time that members of the IRGC's extraterritorial unit, the Qods Force, are in Syria. Qods Force deputy commander Esmail Gha'ani said that the IRGC was aiding Syria, in a report that was quickly removed from Iranian news websites.

Pretty funny to hear Iranians complaining about hostage-taking. My favorite part is the bit about how using human shields. Apparently the Iranians consider that a violation of human rights, forcing children to roll themselves across mine fields to clear them for the soldiers -- that's okay.

Meh, someone should just nuke the whole damn area and have it all annexed by something. Oh wait, now I get why Romney doesn't sound all that bad at times..._________________"Confident, lazy, cocky, dead." -- Felix Jongleur, Otherland

Nuking the whole Middle East would not be environmentally friendly and would have unacceptable collateral damage for the rest of humanity.

A much better approach would be to devise a biological weapon specific to a particular genetic signature, highly contagious after a two weeks of incubation, and lethal after about a month (making it almost impossible to contain and very quick to spread widely).

This is far more humane, because it would minimize collateral damage and harm to the ecosystem.

Nuking the whole Middle East would not be environmentally friendly and would have unacceptable collateral damage for the rest of humanity.

A much better approach would be to devise a biological weapon specific to a particular genetic signature, highly contagious after a two weeks of incubation, and lethal after about a month (making it almost impossible to contain and very quick to spread widely).

This is far more humane, because it would minimize collateral damage and harm to the ecosystem.

A much better approach would be to devise a biological weapon specific to a particular genetic signature, highly contagious after a two weeks of incubation, and lethal after about a month (making it almost impossible to contain and very quick to spread widely).

This is far more humane, because it would minimize collateral damage and harm to the ecosystem.

AIDS, super-flu and various others haven't worked out so well. It is apparently more tricky to implement than it is to fantasize. :P_________________Here's another unfortunate pack of mutants who ought to be penciled in for a sudden visit from the angel of death.
-- Carlin